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	Oracle bone script - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; Hanyu Pinyin: jiǎgǔwén; literally "shell bone writing") refers to incised (or, rarely, brush-written) ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in ancient China.
		Bones and shells used in pyromancy have also been found dating back to the Neolithic, but most are not inscribed, and the symbols on those that are not widely recognized as writing.
		Compared to graphs on bronzes from the middle Shang to early Western Zhou period, the oracle bone graphs appear simplified, which is thought to be the result of the difficulty of engraving characters on the hard bony materials, compared with the ease of writing them in the wet clay from which the bronzes were cast.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Oracle_script (1012 words)

	Exploring Chinese History :: Chapter 7, Section 3- Oracle Bones (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Oracle bones (Chinese: 甲骨; Pinyin: jiǎgǔ; literally "shell bone") were first fully excavated in 1899 from a site in Anyang, near Yinxu (殷墟), the ancient capital of the latter part of the Shang Dynasty of China, located in present day Henan Province.
		Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; Pinyin: jiǎgǔwén; literally "shell bone writing") are incised characters found on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons (oracle bones) thought to be the earliest Chinese characters.
		The bones and script were used in the practice of scapulomancy: the diviner would inscribe on the bone or shell his name, the current date of the sexagesimal cycle and then inscribe two possible outcomes on the shell.
	www.ibiblio.org /chinesehistory/contents/c07s03.html (1096 words)

	Untitled Document
		Oracle Bone Script is the oldest known form of Chinese written language.
		The oracle bone inscriptions received their name after their content which is invariably related to divination.
		These bones typically had three sections: a question for the oracle (charge), the oracle's answer (prognostication), and whether the oracle later proved to be correct (Verification).
	www.plu.edu /~madrigfa/OracleBones.html (378 words)

	Script Types
		Oracle bone scripts were first written with a brush, then inscribed with a stylus or animal bone tool.
		The seal script, also called smaller seal, is one of the last descendants of the ancient script types used in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions.
		This script is also referred to by the term "breaking wave," which refers to the outward flaring shape of the right and left downward slanting strokes.
	depts.washington.edu /chinaciv/callig/tcalhist.htm (1646 words)

	Chinese Script
		The discovery of the oracle bones in China goes back to 1899, when a scholar from Peking was prescribed a remedy containing "dragon bones" for his illness: "dragon bones" were widely used in Chinese medicine and usually refer to fossils of dead animals.
		The oracle bone inscriptions received their name after their content that is invariably related to divination.
		Another type of early Chinese script in its long history of development is represented by the inscriptions cast or carved on ancient bronze objects of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
	www.crystalinks.com /chinascript.html (3095 words)

	Oracle Script Language (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		The script was carved on tortoise shells and ox scapulas (shoulder blade) bones.
		In English literature, it is commonly called "oracle bone script," because some of the objects are thought to be used as oracles, though the script language was not restricted to just oracle applications.
		Initial determination places the new found oracle bone scripts to be at least 3,200 years old in the Shang Dynasty.
	www.chinapage.com /oracle/oracle00.html (169 words)

	Fathom :: The Source for Online Learning
		The bones, mostly the shoulder blades of oxen, were used by the Shang rulers for scapulimancy: divination by reading the cracks that appeared after the application of heat to the prepared surface of the bone.
		The translation of the oracle bone script was made easier by the survival of an early dictionary, Xu Shen's Shuowen jiezi (c.
		The script was called "seal script," for in succeeding millennia and down to the present day it was one of the preferred carving styles for the characters used on seal-stones or chops, which were, and to some extent still are, the equivalent of a signature in China.
	www.fathom.com /feature/121782 (1779 words)

	Ancient Scripts: Chinese (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		This script was etched onto turtle shells and animals bones, which were then used for divination in the royal Shang court, hence the name "oracle bones".
		Consequently, scholars have been using oracle bones as historical documents to investigate the reigns of later Shang monarchs, and surprisingly confirming the veracity of the traditional list of Chinese emperors that was deemed mythological rather than historical.
		This script has survived the passage of time and continues to be used in the present age in calligraphy and seals.
	www.ancientscripts.com /chinese.html (1220 words)

	oracle bones
		However, his and his friends’ interest in the mysterious “dragon bone” did lead to a search for the place of origin of the bone, and to extensive excavation—legal and otherwise—to feed the desires and curiosity of scholars and collectors (to say nothing of the pocketbooks of antiquity dealers).
		A number of animal parts were used for these oracle bones, from a variety of different animals, though most commonly the ox and the turtle.
		Preparations for oracle bone pyromancy—only one of a number of different divination techniques used in the course of Chinese history—involved sawing, scraping, and smoothing the bones with bronze tools, after which a series of pits (zuan)—round or oval indentations—were created in the back.
	www.columbia.edu /cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/starrnews/oracle_bones.html (919 words)

	The Chinese Script (www.chinaknowledge.de)
		The simpliest version is the invention of script by Cangjie or Cang Jie åé ¡, a minister of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di or Huangdi é»å¸) who saw the traces of bird feet in the mud and used these imprints as example for a pictorial script.
		Oracles were written on cattle scapulae or turtle plastrons to divine the future.
		The Xixia script is known from several multi-lingual steles with inscriptions in Chinese, Uighurian, Mongolian, Sanskrit, and Xixia.
	www.chinaknowledge.org /Literature/script.html (6755 words)

	Chinese Script \| CHIN 110 \| Cultural Traditions of China
		Oracle bones were tortoise shells and ox shoulder blades inscribed with simple questions to the king's ancestors.
		Chinese parents like to use the "running script" in letters, which often poses difficulties to their American-born childen, who are only familiar with the printed script.
		By contrast the narrow and wide lines in clerical script are produced by varying the distance between the brush and the paper.
	www.wellesley.edu /Chinese/Chin110/chinese_script.html (1371 words)

	Introduction to the Chinese Script
		The Chinese script is one of the oldest and most widely used writing systems in the world.
		The Chinese script is an ideographic writing system, in which the graphic structure is directly related to the meaning.
		More important is that pictographs are associated with definite meanings and pronunciations, and have become symbolic, and as a result of increasing simplification and abstraction, pictographs of the later ages are quite deferent from their originals.
	faculty.virginia.edu /cll/chinese/introduction.html (1225 words)

	Shang Dynasty oracle bones (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		Oracle Script is an ancient script carved on tortoise shells or animal bones.
		Having emerged during the Shang Dynasty (BC 1600-1000), Oracle Script is considered the oldest script in China.
		All the dates and results of the divination were written down on the shells or animal bones, which became the earliest historical document with writing symbols.
	www.mirabilis.ca /archives/000656.html (293 words)

	Adrian's Chinese Page (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		The earliest uncontroversial examples are the so-called "oracle bone inscriptions" of the Shang Dynasty period (most of the 2nd millenium B.C.E.).
		Their forms, like those on the oracle bones, were highly variable -- the same character was often written in different ways in different places -- but unlike the oracle bone inscriptions, their size and orientation were regular.
		Seal script: The standard style of writing during the later Zhou and early Qin dynasties (end of 1st millenium B.C.E.) was more regular in form (the same characters were nearly always written the same way), and the shapes of all the characters were made more squarish.
	kamares.ucsd.edu /~arobert/chineseCharacters.html (1143 words)

	Encyclopedia: Chinese character (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		And the character 雲 yún (cloud) was written with the structure 云 in the oracle bone script of the Shāng dynasty, and had remained in use later as a phonetic loan in the meaning of to say.
		The Clerical script is a style of Chinese calligraphy that is still being used.
		Oracle bone script (Chinese: ç”²éª¨æ–‡; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally shell bone writing) are incised characters found on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons (oracle bones) thought to be the earliest Chinese characters.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Chinese-character (1975 words)

	Development of the Chinese Script
		On the basis of the available evidence, the earliest Chinese scripts, dating from the Shang Dynasty, are known as Jiaguwen (the oracle bone scripts) and Tongqi Mingwen (the Bronze scripts).
		The scripts of Lishu revised and modified the former fat and curved strokes to be flat, upright and horizontal.
		The Kaishu script began during the declining years of the Han Dynasty, became mature during the Weijin Period, became commonly used during the Nan Bei Chao Period, and is still in use today.
	www.fas.harvard.edu /~clp/China/develop.htm (1291 words)

	Chinese Language and Script
		Because of this, the number of elements in the script is not based on the number of sounds but on the number of words in the language.
		The language and calligraphic style at this stage is similar to that found on the oracle bones.
		The First Emperor introduced the Qin script as the official writing and from there on all the unified states had to use it in their affairs.
	www.crystalinks.com /chineselang.html (1356 words)

	Shangri-La Indus Harappan Script and Ancient Chinese Jia-Gu-wen 甲骨文 Comparison by Sheldon Lee ...
		The script primarily is found on carved seals, dating to a civilization that flourished from ca 2500 BCE to 1500 BCE, just 23 years before the beginning of the Chinese Shang Dynasty, and contemporary with the earliest phases of writing in China.
		The context of the Indus Valley script in its earliest phase is on clay sealing fragments and incised pottery fragments.
		The context of ancient Chinese script is mostly oracular bones used for divination in an effort to predict the outcome of events and a leaderï¿½s fortunes.
	shangrilapublications.org /hp/indus.html (4277 words)

	Article - Oracle Bones - presented by ©NewsFinder.Org - All Rights Reserved
		Holding the flat bones over the fire or inserting a hot bronze stick into a hole drilled in the surface of the bones, the diviners were able to tell good or bad by reading the emerged cracks.
		Hundreds of these oracles bones were stored in the king's archives, and they are the first testimonies of Chinese history and writing.
		The oracle bone inscriptions are a further proof of the script- and document-oriented spirit of the Chinese people.
	www.newsfinder.org /more.php?id=533_0_1_0_M (1070 words)

	Intersections: Chûgoku no onnamoji [Chinese Women's Script] Review
		This volume by Endo Orie is a welcome addition to the growing body of works in the extraordinary script known as Women's Script or nüshu which is used by peasant women in remote villages in Jiangyong county, Hunan province in China.
		Women's script, as it is known to its practitioners, is a phonetic script quite distinct from Chinese character script.
		Additionally she includes a lot of Women's Script material in Japanese translation, including some autobiographies that give a graphic account of Japanese atrocities in the area during WWII.The book is enriched by many photos, diagrams and maps of the region.
	wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au /intersections/issue2/endoreview.html (1915 words)

	Media Releases
		Today, Chinese script is one of the oldest and most widely used writing systems in the world.
		‘Oracle bones’ were tortoise shell and animal bones that were inscribed with Chinese characters.
		The standardisation of script also led to the development of two of the most important Chinese inventions, papermaking and printing.
	www.liswa.wa.gov.au /mrelchinese.html (411 words)

	Script Reform in China - Victor H. Mair
		These emotions are particularly intense for those who consider the script to be one of the primary symbols of Chinese cultural identity.
		The reformers worry that, unless their country modernizes its cumbersome, out-of-date script, everything--including the script itself--will be lost in an unsuccessful race to keep up with the rest of the world.
		Scholars are perplexed by the suddenness with which the script appears; prior to the oracle bone inscriptions, there were only a few isolated and still undecipherable marks on pottery and occasionally on other objects.
	www.worldandi.com /specialreport/1989/october/Sa16641.htm (359 words)

	pictograph chars
		Their supply did not meet the demand and so copies of shells were made out of bone.
		In bone shells, only a few horizontal strokes were filled across the surface to mimic the mouth wrinkles of a real shell, as depicted in the pictograph.
		This character existed in the oracle-bone script, suggesting that some kind of brush was used over 3400 years ago.
	www.mmtaylor.net /Literacy_Book/DOCS/04.html (1113 words)

	The Official Graham Hancock Website: Feature Articles
		I have finally seen the article with the reproduction of the Olmec graphs and the section that Chen believed was similar to the oracle bone script of the Shang.
		In fact the Olmec "script" may not represent language at all, but like the Naxi and other ur-scripts, be more a code for storytelling than an actual transcription of language.
		The Shang oracle bone script, on the other hand, is very advanced and unquestionably qualifies as belonging to a writing system.
	www.grahamhancock.com /features/strangers-p3.htm (692 words)

	Handout 9 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
		oracle bone inscriptions (jiagu wen 甲骨文): inscriptions incised into turtle shells and ox scapulae as part of Late Shang divination (fig.
		small seal script (xiao zhuan 小篆): A type of script developed during the Qin dynasty as a standard for the new empire and ascribed to Li Si.
		clerical script (li shu 历书): A script type that emerged during the early empire derived from the brush writing for everyday use.
	www.lclark.edu /~claypool/webhandouts/9shufa.html (239 words)

	Generator X: Software Wants to Loop Forever
		Each version of a script when first executed can turn out to be a Wild Type: a piece of code testing some parameter or behaviour of the system not meant to be tested by the programmer at that time.
		Were it not for the ability of the user to jump outside the application's loop and terminate it from there, a script fortunate enough to hit such a state becomes immortal.
		The shape of the tokens in the Oracle Bone script was informed by the constraints posed by the medium it was carved on.
	www.socialfiction.org /generatorx.html (1450 words)

	1st Floor
		The tour round this department begins in the late Gothic living quarters of the papermaker family Gallician from the end of the 15th century near the staircase in the south room.
		The other objects are examples of the writing materials and scripts of the most important advanced civilizations of the world.
		In the beautifully panelled Scriptorium examples of mediaeval and modern calligraphy are an eloquent witness to the skill of the monks and scribes.
	www.papiermuseum.ch /english/1stfloor.htm (809 words)

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